


Like Mother, Like Daughter

by jenfurlee (orphan_account)



Series: Westfall Family Fics [4]
Category: Wentworth (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-17 14:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8146790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/jenfurlee
Summary: There was one trait the Westfall's weren't prepared for their daughter to inherit... Franky's temper.





	

Eleanor Westfall was a wild card from the get go. The moment she started crawling, she was pulling down tablecloths. When she learned to walk, it wasn’t long before she was running around the house like a bat out of hell with Franky trailing after her. The little girl was definitely a thrill-seeker and absolutely adored being spun around in circles and dipped upside down. She’d squeal loudly with a bright toothless smile that melted her mother’s hearts.  
  
She was really the perfect blend of both Franky and Bridget. When Franky decided she wanted to carry their next child, Bridget’s brother had immediately offered to donate the Westfall DNA. Neither of them had expected this, but the idea of having a piece of both of them was something they had always wished for. While she had Franky’s olive skin and dark hair, her eyes were all Bridget; large and blue to match her older brother, Nolan’s. She had the tendency to stick out her tongue when she was deep in thought, much like her birth-mum, but she playfully wrinkled her nose exactly like Bridget. She had everyone wrapped around her tiny finger. The one thing that they were not prepared for Ellie to inherit from her birth-mum was her temper. 

Both Bridget and Franky drove in complete silence to the kid’s primary school after a short, but alarming phone call from the headmaster. She needed both of them to come in to talk about a situation that happened at school that left their 8 year old daughter suspended for two weeks. She hadn’t even made it out of third grade without a record.  
  
“Any idea what this is about?” Franky asked as she opened Bridget’s car door for her. Bridget shook her head before the two of them headed towards the main office holding hands tightly for silent support. Sitting outside was a visibly upset Ellie with tears streaming down her red face. Her arms were crossed over her huffing chest as she looked down at her worn red converse sneakers, kicking her heel against the chair beneath her. Franky kneeled in front of her placing her hands on Ellie’s knees trying to get her to look up.  
  
“What’s going on, bub?” She asked, her eyebrows creased with concern. Bridget stood by as the principal escorted two parents out of his office with a young sniveling boy carrying an ice pack over a clearly swollen eye. Franky’s eyes met Bridget’s in horror. There was no way… Was there? Ellie continued to scowl in his direction. The brunette mum swore under her breath.  
  
The principal nodded in their direction with a forced smile.  
  
“Eleanor, I’m going to talk with your parents for a few minutes about what happened today, alright?” Ellie shrugged in response, continuing to look downward before swiping her tears from her eyes and nose. The gesture caught Franky off guard because she felt like she was looking in a mirror at her former self. She gave her daughter a reassuring squeeze on her knee and a quick peck on the cheek before following Bridget into the office.  
  
“Well, I don’t exactly know how to begin this, but their was a situation on the playground today between Ellie and a couple classmates.” Bridget and Franky waited holding their breath. “She was seen punching both of the boys. It took two teachers to get her off of them and back inside. She refuses to talk about what happened.” He pinched the bridge of his nose from obvious stress at the current situation.  
  
“Mr. Hawkings, I cannot begin to tell you how sorry we are. Ellie has never done anything like this before,” Bridget spoke with surprise in her voice. How could their sweet little girl be capable of taking down not one, but two boys when she stood at least seven centimeters shorter than the rest of her class?  
  
“Have you spoken to her recently about school?” He asked politely.  
  
“Are you seriously asking if we talk to our kids?” Franky creased her eyebrows defensively. Bridget tried to calm her by patting her thigh as if to say, ‘easy there, tiger’. “Yes, we speak to them everyday about school,” she changed her attitude, pulling in deep breaths to her lungs, just like her wife had taught her those many years ago.  
  
“Ellie doesn’t seem to have lost touch with her group of friends this year, and the two she does have, are the boys she hit.” Both women sat stunned. Ellie always spoke so fondly of school, and their house had been full of children at her birthday parties in the past.  
  
“Do we know if she was provoked?” Franky crossed her arms over her chest.  
  
“Both boys have said that Ellie just came at them. I would like to get Ellie’s side of the story to ensure that the stories line up, but fighting is an automatic two week suspension. Unfortunately there’s nothing I can do about that. She must leave school with you.”  
  
“We understand. We will speak to her, I assure you this will never happen again. We will pay for any medical expensive if necessary,” Bridget said for both of them, standing and shaking the man’s hand. Franky nodded curtly, unable to find any words to add. She shook his hand quickly before heading back out into the main office.  
  
“Got your stuff?” Bridget asked to her daughter with a gentle hand on the cheek. Franky held the car keys in her hands, eyes looking forward. Ellie nodded in reply, draping her bag over her shoulder following her mums out towards the car. She had stopped crying, but her face was still red with emotion. She slid into the back seat resting her head against the window before she closed her eyes. Franky’s hands gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles were painted white the whole drive home.  
  
“What the hell were you thinking, El?” She shook her head completely baffled by the actions of the sweet little girl. Ellie remained silent pursing her lips. “I asked you a question,” she raised her voice slightly.  
  
“Franky,” Bridget whispered trying to sooth her rage.  
  
“I don’t know.” Ellie mumbled.  
  
“You don’t know?” The brunette made eye contact through the rear view mirror to see her daughter shrug in response. “You don’t know why you just got suspended for fighting? Do you understand we’ve now got to take time off to watch you?” Ellie nodded with tears pooling over her eyes again. “You know better than this, Eleanor Amelia. You can’t just go around swinging fists at people.” Franky pulled into the driveway of their home turning around to the backseat. Ellie had grown to despise hearing her full name because she knew her mums meant business when they pulled it out. “What do you have to say for yourself?”  
  
“They called you and mum dykes, alright? That’s why I punched them!” She screamed before running into their home up to her room to cry in solitude. 

“This is bullshit, Gidge, and you know it,” Franky fumed, pacing back in forth in their living room running her hands through her dark mane. Bridget sat with her legs crossed on the sofa watching her.

“I know, but it still doesn’t give her the right to hit them.” Bridget was definitely the peace keeper in their relationship. The brunette ran on pure emotion, whereas the psychologist was able to bring logic and reason.

“I would have decked them too!” Franky held her hands up defensively. “How can they punish her for protecting-” She was silenced with a deep kiss while Bridget held both of her cheeks in her hands.

“Take a breath,” Bridget demanded. Her wife complied, pulling air in through her nose and exhaling through her mouth. “Can we have a discussion please?” She was met with a nod as she pulled Franky to sit beside her on the couch. “Why are you really upset?” Bridget whispered and tucked Franky’s hair behind her ear to reveal her jade eyes.

“What if she’s like me?” she murmured. She didn’t need to continue explaining, her wife knew that it was one of Franky’s worst fears that their daughter would inherit her rage.

“Then she has the best teacher in the world to help her,” Bridget soothed pressing her forehead to her love’s. “Franky, you are not the person you once were. You worked hard to better yourself. She needs to know that she’s not alone. She will love you no matter what.” Franky sighed deeply before nodding towards her beautiful wife.

 

She knocked softly before cracking the door open to see Ellie curled up with her legs towards her chest on her bright tye-dye bedding.  
  
“Can I come in, please?” Franky asked from the doorway, waiting for permission to step further.  
  
“You already did,” Ellie muttered picking at the purple nail polish on her hands. Franky tentatively took a few steps forward before sitting on the edge of her daughter’s bed.  
  
“I’m sorry I got angry with you earlier.” She rested her hands on her knees.  
  
“Seems kind of funny you’re getting mad at me for getting mad,” her daughter huffed.  
  
“You’re absolutely right. I came up here to apologize, but I also need to talk to you about something.” Franky sighed. She knew that she’d eventually have to have the talk with Ellie, she just didn’t expect it to be so soon.  
  
“What?”  
  
“How you felt today, I’m afraid you get that anger from me. I was scared, and I took it out on you. It isn’t an excuse, but you deserve to know the truth. I’m also not saying I agree with it, but I understand why you did what you did today.” She turned towards the young girl, crossing her legs under her.  
  
“You do?” Ellie’s blue eyes widened. She sat up in front of her mum.  
  
“Of course I do. You were defending your family. I know all about that,” Franky smoothed Ellie’s hair back placing a kiss on her forehead. “Do you remember how we told you that we met at Mummy’s work?” her daughter nodded silently waiting for Franky to continue. “That’s because I was I was an inmate there.” It was now or never. Time to rip off the band-aid.  
  
“What?” she shook her head, unable to comprehend.  
  
“I was a different person when I was younger, a very angry person. I let that anger have control of me for a long time, and I did a lot of things that I’m not proud of. I hurt someone real bad for what they said about me, and I went to jail for three years because of it.” She glanced down at her hands, unable to see the shock in her daughter’s eyes any longer. The tears started to flow.  
  
“Mum,” she whispered. “It’s okay,” she whispered pushing herself into her lap, wrapping her arms around her neck. Franky held her tightly against her chest, tears leaving dark trails of tears down her face.  
  
“I almost lost you once, and I can’t imagine seeing you go through some of the things I had to because of the choices I made when I wasn’t thinking straight,” she spoke honestly pressing her lips against Ellie’s smooth, long locks. “This isn’t the first time they’ve said things about us, was it?” Ellie shook her head.  
  
“Chloe Mitchell started saying stuff at the beginning of the year when she saw us at open house, and then she told the girls in class that they shouldn’t be friends with me anymore. Today was the first time I’d heard Jack and Turner say anything, and it just made me so mad, I lost it.” she wiped her eyes.  
  
“Did you get them good at least?” Franky whispered smirking slightly.  
  
“Turner had to get stitches because I busted his lip open,” she winced. Franky laughed shaking her head.  
  
“Don’t ever tell your mother this, but I’m proud of you.” Franky held her daughter’s face in between her hands. “You stood up for yourself, and that takes courage. But violence is the absolute last resort to defend yourself when you’re in danger. Try to talk through things first. If that doesn’t work, and you feel yourself getting angry, take a deep breath and walk away. Pretend like whatever they’re doing or saying doesn’t even come up on your radar. It will drive them bloody crazy.”  
  
“Walk away? Really?” she creased her eyebrows.  
  
“Cross my heart,” Franky promised as she ran her index finger over her chest. “Then you  
  
come talk to me or your mum, yeah?” Ellie nodded in agreement tracing her hand over the delicate feathers of Franky’s tattooed arm. She held up her small pinky, and Franky immediately wrapped hers around before they both kissed their thumbs solidifying the pact. Pink swears were sacred in the Westfall house. You could never break a pinky swear.  
  
“Would you take it back? Hurting that person?” her small voice came out softly, now  
  
resting against Franky’s shoulder. She looked up, her crystal blue eyes almost covered by her thick eyelashes. Franky shook her head immediately without a second thought.  
  
“No. I’d have never learned to get control of myself, and I would have never met your  
  
mum. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. She showed me what it was like to be loved, and she gave me two of the most adorable little brats-I mean-kids in the world.” Franky said biting her tongue with a smile hearing her daughter’s laughter for the first time that day. “Plus she’s smokin’ hot,” Franky continued.  
  
“Mum! Gross!” Ellie pushed herself off her mother’s giggling loudly. “Thank you.”  
  
“Anytime, bub. Feeling better?” Ellie nodded. Franky leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead. “You’ve had a long day, why don’t you take a nap? When mum picks up Nolan from school, we’ll go get ice cream.” Franky held her index finger over her lips to signal the secret. Ellie nodded before her mom draped the worn red blanket from the foot of her bed over her. “Love you.”  
  
“Love you, mum,” Ellie closed her tired eyes. Franky turned off the light, and had almost shut the door before she heard her daughter mumbling something softly.  
  
“Hm?” Ellie’s eyes cracked open.  
  
“Your tattoo make sense now. The clock and the phoenix,” she said sleepily. “You really are a badass.”  
  
“Damn straight, Ellie,” she winked before closing the door behind her.  
  
The fear in Franky’s bones had disappeared entirely. Yes, it was true her daughter had inherited her temper. She also had Bridget’s taste for black olives, and Franky’s ability to roll her tongue. Traits were just that, traits. She had something that Franky didn’t have growing up. She had the unconditional love of two parents with her every step of the way. She would never be alone and un-navigated through her journey like Franky had been. They would be there to guide her smoothly. Yeah, Franky was pretty sure their little girl was going to be alright.


End file.
